Flown in directly from Seattle, Chris Young presented Modernist Cuisine at The Flemish Primitives today. In the picture: presumably the first copy in Europe 🙂 It’s backordered now (see Nathan’s longposts on this) due to high sales. It actually reached as high as #38 on Amazon’s overall sales rank. I had 5 minutes to take a look at the books today and I can only say wow! These books mark a new era for everyone interested in a scientific and technological approach to cooking! Immediately the feeling struck me: there is nothing more to blog about now. But Chris reassured me (as he also did in my recent interview with him) that there is plenty more to dig into. Phew. Expect more about The Flemish Primitives 2011 in the coming days.

Comments

I pre ordered my copy last july, had some initial problems with amazon on getting it delivered. But I got my copy last week. Wow is right. This book not only has mind blowing pictures, but everything is extremely thorough (2 whole sections on food safety and microbiology in the kitchen). A lot of the techniques require expensive machines (centrifuge, homogenizer etc) but they also explain other ways to attain a similar result. I have only briefly flipped through the volumes and I can say I am like a kid in a candy store. This is really a ground breaking book. The quick reference recipe book is made for the kitchen too. The pages are tear and stain resistant, you can probably put it through the dishwasher its that durable.

Also I spoke with someone from a culinary bookstore, he told me some of the sets got split up between different stores as a sample. And thinks down the road you might be able to purchase each volume separately.